New American Truth

Long time readers know that I have, in the past, written several articles about Bugout Bags, Go Bags, Trunk Kept Go Bags and assorted other articles on related topics. This past week I was presented with an interesting hypothetical: what if you couldn’t take a bag? What if all you had was what you were WEARING and your guns. What would that consist of? Naturally this is radically different depending on what environment you are, or you expect to be, in. Still, it seemed an interesting enough challenge to contemplate that I thought I’d share. Read the full story

As I read various articles and blogs about survival preparation, planning, preparedness, etc. it occurs to me that each writer, including myself, holds a greater expertise in certain areas of preparedness and survival than in others. I know… “Duh!” right? What would I expect? Everyone has that which they have mastered to a greater extent and those skills that they still need to practice. It is human nature, I believe, to prefer to practice that which we are already good at and to neglect, to some extent, the things we aren’t as good at. Why? Because we naturally don’t like failure and when we practice the things we’re not as particularly skilled at, we don’t do them as well… leaving us feeling a greater sense of failure than when we efficiently and neatly accomplish another skill set we’re far better at. Read the full story

Let me start out by saying that I grew up in the era of the first couple Rambo movies and was firmly embedded with the thought that a good survival knife had to be big, have saw teeth, a hollow handle, a lanyard and in general look mean enough to take down a Cape Buffalo.  I have, since then, matured some (read “gotten older”) and have realized that where field knives are concerned, bigger isn’t always better.  Of late it seems that some manufacturers are agreeing with me. Read the full story

In a recent contract job I undertook I had to study the casualties our forces have suffered in the combat zones of the Middle East, as well as the casualties our public safety professionals (cops) suffer here at home. In both cases there showed a significant number of preventable losses with those injuries being to the extremities. Recognizing that there are preventable deaths occurring from blood loss resulting from extremity wounds, the ability to control / stop bleeding is highlighted. This week I took a look at two products that are designed for just that purpose: the SWAT-T and QuikClot Combat Gauze. Read the full story

Everyone has a different idea of what a “tool kit” is and you can find a plethora of articles on “every day carry.”  My wonderment, as brought up by a conversation I had yesterday, is what preppers or survivalists carry each day that they consider essential for their survival.  The bigger question, for me, is what they think they should be carrying but don’t due to legal restrictions (weapons), convenience (bulkiness) or perception (how would people look at them). Read the full story

In my book, “Personal Disaster Planning Handbook,” I describe a layered and redundant system of preparation that includes both a backpack/bug out bag and a load bearing vest.  In the book I’m very clear that you have to make the choice whether you load your vest to support survival, defense (combat) or both.  Recently I had a friend of mine point out to me that combat is entirely about survival so if you load your vest to support defense/combat then, in his opinion, you ARE loading it for survival.  This gave me pause and forced me to consider a few things. Read the full story

The creativity level of people who are trying to sell something never ceases to amaze me.  Manufacturers, vendors, bloggers, etc… they all seem capable of coming up with a new spin on why you need something they’ve got.  I’m as guilty as the next guy: I try to sell my books and certainly this website makes a few dollars from advertising (enough to keep us up and running anyway).  For all that, I still believe that basic preparedness and survival starts, first and foremost, with YOU and your knowledge.  I also firmly believe that survival and preparedness are two different things. Read the full story

With Black Diversion Bags & Packs
by Ralph Mroz

Off-body carry of a handgun – usually in a bag of some sort – isn’t the best option in terms of preparedness — you give up some weapon security and access time.  But it is necessary on occasion.  Sometimes the only other option is to not have a gun handy at all, and in some parts of the world, it may give you the option to suddenly “lose” an incriminating item (this, of course, isn’t an issue for law enforcement personnel state-side, but it is relevant to other folks).  Similarly, covert long-gun carry is really only practical in an off-body bag, whether the weapon is broken down or intact.  Often times this is a necessity for the good guys in populated and/or hostile territory, such as Bogotá, Columbia or Cambridge, Massachusetts. Read the full story

Isn’t it a shame that we can’t get people as excited about preparedness as one author did about a man’s variations in his sexual interests?  I mean… yeah, I understand that almost anything to do with sex is more interesting that preparedness, planning and survival, but if you die for lack of preparedness you’re not going to be around to enjoy sex anyway, right?  That said, the whole “fifty shades” thing got me to thinking that there are probably that many different kind of preppers (if not more) and quite often we’re all lumped together in the same basket in spite of our differences. Read the full story